What will drive the future of e-commerce?

The area of mobile will certainly play an important role. Especially when it comes to our future user habits and how we are developing applications for e-commerce experiences. We had a quick chat with Adapt Group CEO Kresten Wiingard to talk about what will drive e-commerce in 2023. 

Your 2023 e-commerce strategy plan should keep these four things at the forefront.

• Pay attention to mobile users

• Develop apps for a great shopping experiences

• Consider your customer connections

• Lead with sustainability

Let’s dig into them real quick.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Platform Comparison Market Share

Mobile-first has been a well-known approach for many years and with more than 6.6 billion smartphone users in the world adapting to a mobile-first approach is no longer up for debate. You need to serve the user where the user is.  

We started talking about going mobile-first in 2014, and in 2016 we saw mobile traffic begin to overtake desktop traffic. But even with this data, many companies still underserve the mobile user. The trend in usage is pointing in one direction and if companies don’t adapt to mobile-first it’s very likely that it will affect their e-commerce business negatively.

The discussion around native or responsive apps is lengthy and ongoing, but we would argue that it’s in your best interest to prefer native apps for your e-commerce setup. With a native app build you get the better, consistent user experience and user-friendly interface without the constraints of a web browser. From a performance perspective native also runs faster and more smoothly being able to use more of the device’s resources and features. From a cost point of view, yes, going native is in general more costly. However, giving your users the perzonalised shopping experience they are looking for will undoubtedly pay off in the long run.

The key here is to turn away from a monolithic platform and choose an API-driven one. We believe that MACH architecture will gain even more traction in 2023.

We mentioned this earlier in this article and it’s really quite simple. Meet your customers where they are. Omnichannel is a word that’s been around for a while, but still, not every brand understands how to execute on it. Your mission should be consistent across all platforms, devices, and context - including your online store, and your customers should be able to find you on their preferred platform. 

Consider omnichannel for your customer support also. Every customer is unique and how they want to approach you is too, thus, if it’s email, phone, website chat or Facebook Messenger - you need to be reachable everywhere.

Lastly, there is also the possibility to save on advertising money on Google, Facebook and the like, if you connect with your customers directly.

As a brand you do not only need to consider sustainability in the development and shipping of the products you sell. Lead by example, and think sustainability into your digital solution and user experience by optimizing it, auditing your content constantly, consider green UX and green e-commerce hosting. We wrote an article about this earlier. 

Our digital carbon footprint is crucial as digital services account for 4% of all greenhouse gas emissions - a number only set to increase in the coming years.

That’s it folks. Those were our predictions for e-commerce in 2023. If you want to talk more about how we can help your e-commerce solution on the right path, please don’t hesitate to reach out.